


A Day at Home

by EntreNous



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Bickering, Cuddling & Snuggling, Domestic, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-03-25
Updated: 2005-03-25
Packaged: 2017-11-26 21:15:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/654492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EntreNous/pseuds/EntreNous
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"All day, during what should have been a semi-productive, semi-lazy day off from work, something had been simmering inside of Spike, and it was making Xander jittery."</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Day at Home

**Author's Note:**

> Set more or less in the same universe as [A Few Changes Here and There](http://archiveofourown.org/works/654358), but certainly can be read as a stand-alone. 
> 
> Written for zandra_x, who wanted Spike/Xander with a nice moment. Starts out with more crankiness than anything else, but we get to the nice bit by the end.

Xander gave an uneasy cough and looked up from reorganizing his tools to find Spike staring at him. Again.

All day, during what should have been a semi-productive, semi-lazy day off from work, something had been simmering inside of Spike, and it was making Xander jittery. He’d asked several times if Spike needed anything, and the answer had consistently been negative. After cleaning out the inside of the car, Xander found Spike lurking in the garage, a distinct look of annoyance on his face. Xander had asked if Spike wanted him to run out, pick something up for him, but Spike had just turned on his heel and gone back into the house. 

Now as Xander went into the kitchen to make coffee, Spike followed him silently, leaning against the counter and tracking his motions. Xander took out the filter with a flick of his wrist to raise the entertainment value, but Spike’s eye-roll seemed to indicate that he didn’t think the way the flimsy paper semi-billowed out was a cool thing. "Exciting, isn't it?" Xander offered just before he spilled the grounds and then cursed. Spike didn't respond.

Shrugging, Xander ambled into the living room while the coffee brewed, frowning at and discarding various pieces of junk mail and catalogues from a pile of bills atop the bookshelf by the entryway. When he turned around, he let out a small shriek, because once again, Spike was behind him, eyes watchful.

“Did you want to look at the mail?” Xander asked, clutching glossy magazines that had almost slipped his grasp. 

Spike looked at Xander like he was clearly insane. “Don’t get any mail, do I?”

“Okay,” Xander muttered, putting down the pile and heading over in the direction of the couch and coffee table. Spike murmured something like “finally,” but when Xander just gathered the mugs that had collected on the table and made for the kitchen, Spike let out a sound signaling his irritation. But when Xander looked back to figure out the source of his ire, Spike just raised his chin in the air, and Xander gave up on figuring out what was bugging him.

Back in the kitchen, Xander ran the tap to fill the mugs with water and tried with all of his might not to turn around when he felt Spike’s gaze once again upon him.

“Coffee’s done,” Spike said darkly, and despite the vague air of menace emanating off of Spike in waves, Xander bounced on the balls of his feet a little bit because coffee being done was always a good thing.

“I suppose you’ll be sitting down now,” Spike noted after Xander had knocked a few things over in the refrigerator looking for the half and half, and added the requisite four teaspoons of sugar. 

“What? Yeah, I guess so,” Xander said absently. He took a long swallow. “Man, that’s good stuff,” he noted as he wandered back into the living room and set the mug down on the coffee table.

He tried to ignore the fact that Spike was prowling after him. At this point he was convinced that he’d somehow done something so very awful that Spike didn’t want to tell him what it was straight out, and was just stalking him all over the house until Xander figured it out with appropriate amounts of horror and shame. But today being his day off, he didn’t so much feel like playing _guess what’s wrong with this vampire_ when he could be taking care of a few things, or relaxing or puttering or . . .

“Oh!” he said, leaping up just when he’d been about to take a seat on the couch. Spike actually bared his teeth at him -- not fangs, but pretty damn close -- and Xander took a step back. “Okay, sorry about the loud voice,” Xander began in a placating tone. “Just remembered that I forgot to phone Willow back, and I figured--”

“You’re going to call Willow,” Spike said calmly.

Xander raised his eyebrows. “Yeah. I owe her a call. And I figured I could catch her while I was taking a look at that side table. The one that you said rocks when you put something on top of it. I can balance it out, work on re-gluing the legs if I need to, or--”

“The table,” Spike said in a flat voice.

Xander scratched the side of his neck nervously. “Um. Yeah?”

Spike let out a sound of pure frustration. “You know that it’s been cold and damp all day today.”

Xander stared at him blankly. “You want me to turn up the heat? Or . . . I could take a look at the windows, see if we’re catching a draft from any of them. I think I have a container of caulk somewhere --”

In a flash Spike was in front of him, putting his hand over Xander’s mouth and backing Xander against the couch. Xander landed with a muffled “oof!” and stared at Spike in confusion.

“All day you’ve been nattering about, fixing this, straightening those things, going through that pile of nonsense, taking a look at leaks and drafts and bills and papers,” Spike fumed as he climbed on top of Xander, straddling his waist. “And all day I’ve been waiting for you to quit your flitting and fluttering, sit down with me, and warm me up.”

Xander motioned for Spike to remove his hand and cleared his throat. “Wait, hold up. You’re mad because I haven’t been spending time with you and cuddling you?”

Spike sniffed injuriously. “Didn’t say that. Cuddling, that’s something you like. I’m talking about basic heat issues. And don’t look at me that way. I don’t need to drape myself all over you to cling and fawn and ask how your week was just because you have the day off and you have more time to spend with me. I’m just _cold_.”

Xander couldn’t help it. He started to smile. Spike scowled at him in return, but that only made Xander’s grin wider. “That’s so cute.”

“It is not,” Spike said between gritted teeth. “Not cute in the slightest. Want to get warm is all.”

“ C’mere,” Xander smiled, pulling Spike closer into more of a lap-sitting position and wrapping his arms tight around him. “That better?”

“Maybe,” Spike conceded in a petulant voice, ducking his head down and nuzzling Xander’s neck. 

They sat like that for a few moments, Xander running his hands up and down Spike’s back, massaging at his shoulder blades, Spike burrowing further against Xander when Xander kissed the top of his head and making grumpy noises as he attempted to get closer.

“You a little warmer?” Xander asked softly a few minutes later.

“A little,” Spike said in a quiet voice. “But don’t you try to get up,” he said at a more normal volume when Xander shifted. “I’ve only just gotten you to sit still.”

“I won’t move if you don’t want me to,” Xander assured him. “Well. I mean, not unless my leg falls asleep. Or I have a sudden, urgent craving to caulk some things.” When Spike half-snarled at him, he laughed. “A joke! I’m joking. No, I’m not going anywhere.”

“See that you don’t,” Spike said, but now instead of his earlier cranky edge, his voice took on a coy note.

“You know what’s even warmer than this?” Xander asked, his lips against Spike’s ear. “A hot shower.”

“That we can move for,” Spike said readily, and without further ceremony dragged a laughing Xander upstairs.


End file.
